Educational Resources
Botany Without Borders
The video by Dr. Karl Joseph Niklas is richly entertaining and artful... a complete description of the how, what and why of Botany. Contact Botany.org for higher quality video suitable for large screen projections. Also available: Video Only with accompanying script for translation into any language.
The White Cabbage Butterfly
The video by Martin de Vos explains how you can identify which plants are more resistant to tissue chewing caterpillars. He uses a no-choice set-up where caterpillars are forced to feed from a plant. After 7 days Martin compares the weight of the caterpillars. Some caterpillars will be full-grown, while others are still small. Small caterpillars mean that a plant is well defended against these attackers. The second experiment is a no choice experiment with white cabbage butterflies that are given a choice on which plant material to lay their eggs. The results show that these butterflies are attracted to plants with specific chemicals in the leaves.
How To Set Up Aphid Artificial Diet Experiments
The video made by John Ramsey shows how some specialized green peach aphids (Myzus persicae) are able to feed from tobacco, whereas others cannot. This is likely because of the presence of nicotine. Nicotine is a toxic chemical that is not only present in cigarettes, but also in tobacco plants. John uses an artificial diet experiment to show that nicotine does not affect red aphids, but kills green aphids that belong to the same species. John is now trying to identify why these red aphids are able to withstand higher concentrations of nicotine in their food.
Aphids That Transmit Plant Viruses
Cecilia also got her chance to shine in the spotlight of JoVE’s cameras. She studies aphids that transmit plant viruses and shows her viewers how to study virus transmission between infected plants, aphids, and non-infected plants. She uses a technique whereby aphids are injected with virus particles to determine their ability to transmit this virus.